Under the proposal, riders would generally have to obey traffic laws and signals. They would have to yield to pedestrians, and only one person would be allowed per scooter.

“I wanted to get it done as fast as I could, because there’s just so much concern that people have for the fact that they’re on sidewalks,” Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman said of the bill she and Councilman Paul Kashmann are proposing. She is still working with police to determine penalties for scooter scofflaws.

The bill also requires lights, reflectors and reflective material for scooters. That applies to the dockless companies’ scooters and to personal scooters.

The council’s land use and transportation committee will debate the bill next week before it heads to a likely vote before the full council. Susman hopes the state legislature will revisit its own laws this upcoming year, too.

More changes coming

The Department of Public Works also may consider changes to its rules for dockless vehicles, according to Susman.

One prime topic: The city requires companies to regularly relocate scooters to transit stops. If you leave one outside your house, for example, Bird’s workers might haul it back to a bus stop.

That’s frustrating for users who want to start their rides closer to home, Susman said. She wants companies to place scooters where demand is highest.

“I’m not convinced that (a scooter) is the ride to transit or from transit,” she said. “It is transit.”

The city also could loosen its limits on the scooter population. Currently, the city allows a total of 1,750 dockless scooters and 1,000 dockless bikes between five companies — Lime, Bird, Lyft, Spin and Razor.

Instead, Susman is interested in a “dynamic” system. If data showed high scooter usage, a company might be allowed to add a vehicle. But if a particular scooter was used too rarely, the company might have to remove it from the fleet.

“Cities make rules that make it easy for the city but harder for the user,” she said. “You have to think about the user, and how they use it.”

Darcy Yee, a representative for Lyft, did not comment on the company’s tutorial for scooter users, but wrote in an email that Lyft supports Denver’s “shift to building more bike lanes to create safer roads for riders in the community.”

Heather Burke, a spokeswoman for Denver Public Works, said the department is focused on the bike-lane bill at the moment.

“Our primary concern right now is safety and finding a place for electric scooters aside from the sidewalk,” she wrote in an email.

Andrew Kenney covers Denver and its government. He's interested in how power and development are shaping the city. He previously worked as a reporter for The (Raleigh) News & Observer and for Denverite. Email him at akenney@denverpost.com or call 303-954-1785.